The Positive Impact of “Admission of Error”

(Minghui.org) When I was the section chief of the Civil Settlement Department, in the Seoul Southern District Court, a human rights organization representative brought a woman to my office. The woman wanted to apply for a re-examination procedure, so she went to the court to review her adjudication files that had been heard previously. She had the right to view the records immediately but a court clerk told her the files couldn’t be found and asked her to come back later.

The delay continued for about a month. The woman thought the court had no intention of letting her view the files so she contacted the human rights organization and asked for help.

The human rights organization representative heard the woman’s story and knew the court was at fault. He made an appointment to meet me to discuss the problem. The court clerk who was assigned to handle the woman’s request told me that he searched the archives many times but couldn’t find her records. So I went with the clerk to look for her records in archives again. It turned out her case records had mistakenly been destroyed when the previous section chief destroyed the expired records.

When the woman and the human rights representative came to my office, I admitted that it was the court’s mistake. I said that due to court staff error, the woman’s case records were destroyed along with the expired records.

The human rights organization representative seemed surprised that I admitted that the court made a mistake. His attitude changed and he said that he had dealt with countless public officials for more than ten years, and they always made excuses. He said this was the first time he met someone who was willing to admit that they or their organization made a mistake. He asked the woman to understand and not escalate the problem. With my admission and apology, her mood eased.

The representative said that he originally planned to go to the court president and demand that the relevant personnel be held accountable, if I did not admit the mistake.

As a Falun Dafa practitioner, no matter what my job is, I cannot lie, so I just told the truth. This moved the representative of human rights organization. A few days later, I reported this incident at a meeting with the court president, directors, and section chiefs. The court president praised me for handling the civil complaint well.

I became close to the representative of this human rights organization because of what happened. When I told him about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa, he was very angry and said in the future he would actively cooperate in spreading the truth about Dafa. Afterwards, when we invited him to participate in our activities, he gave many speeches criticizing the CCP, and represented the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) of South Korea at a conference in Taiwan.

When meeting with representatives from various countries in Taiwan, he said that what he did for Falun Gong was the most meaningful human rights activity in his life. He used to be a devout Christian and was even able to recite passages from the Bible. After he became disappointed with the church, he no longer believed in any religions. When he later encountered difficulties, he asked me for advice. I gave him a copy of Zhuan Falun. After he read the book he started practicing Falun Dafa.